Every week, Alton Brown is joining the Star Talk roster to talk about the most-recent elimination and the thoughts behind each difficult decision from the judges’ perspective.

As far as I’m concerned, this challenge got down to the nitty-gritty — the real skills required to do the actual job of being a Food Network Star. The finalists had an hour to concoct a crowd-pleasing dish based on a classic summer pairing. Then they had to demo that dish to a crowd of roughly 400 food fans. The food was as up and down as the rides at Knott’s Berry Farm. When it came to the demo, two finalists were clearly on the bottom: Reuben and Christopher.

Every week, Alton Brown is joining the Star Talk roster to talk about the most-recent elimination and the thoughts behind each difficult decision from the judges’ perspective.

When it comes to eliminations,I’d say that eight times of 10, Bobby, Giada and I talk it out and come to a unanimous decision, but not this time. Granted, the challenge was tough on everyone, forcing them to put themselves out there as conceptualists and performers. This also made it very tough for those of us on the Selection Committee.